Toni Lettner Judo Seminar Review

In the real world no one is going to start a fight with you while they are on the ground on their knees and if someone does you can just kick them in the head. During most Jiu Jitsu classes very seldom will you start rolling with your partner from standing unless it is a competition class, wrestling class or you are getting ready to compete. Developing a standup game is important to developing a well rounded Jiu Jitsu game whether you incorporate wrestling or judo, knowing how to handle yourself on your feet is quite important.

This past week, I was informed that we would be having a Judo seminar at the dojo this Saturday. Now I am not a Judo guy and have just recently started to add Judo to my training so based on this I decided that this was a good opportunity to add another skill to my toolbox. I tried to encourage others I train with to go and some of them showed up. Honestly I was very glad and satisfied that I attended. Here are some of my take a way thoughts about what I learned from the seminar.

Grips and grips breaks are king. We first started the series of movements with a different grip break (different than the ones I know). This grip break led into a series of movements that would take the opponent to the ground. The movement that the grip break transitioned into was a few different variations of the Sumi gaeshi. (Also if timing is right then Sumi can be a great single leg counter).

Judo seminars are pretty fun. We started with a normal like warm-up of running, sliding, rolling etc. and then had a fun game of belt tag. Wherever you got hit with the belt you had to hold that spot and then chase the other people to hit them. This really set the tone of the seminar (ask Perry where he was tagged). We were here to learn and have fun. (If you haven’t experienced the Neutral Ground atmosphere before then you should. We train hard, roll hard and have lots of fun).

Toni Lettner is immensely knowledgeable. He was able to demonstrate everything with great proficiency and answered everyone’s questions. (He even gave Perry some anti-big guy moves that I am sure that he will attempt to use on me). We are very grateful that he came and gave the seminar.

If you missed this seminar, you really missed out on another great training opportunity but don’t fret there are talks of Toni coming back and doing a monthly Judo seminar. Oh and the really cool thing was that it wasn’t just a Judo seminar it was a Judo for BJJ seminar and it was a lot of fun. I had a great time and learned something new. I am looking forward to Toni coming back and learning more.